"He called me a week ago, and he called me on Saturday, and we had good conversation each time, and he encouraged me to get a result with Sen. [Patty] Murray [D-Wash.]," Alexander said, the Examiner reported.

"He said, 'I don't want people to suffer.' Those were his words . . . and he's aware that during this interim that might happen."

Trump was not initially supportive of the bipartisan effort, encouraging GOP senators instead to work on a bill to overhaul Obamacare.

As chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Alexander has been working with Murray since September to craft a bill that would stabilize the Obamacare exchanges during the next two years.

"I would like to repeal and replace Obamacare, and Sen. Murray would like to keep it in tact," Alexander said, the Examiner reported. "But that's not how you make a compromise."

Alexander said he and other Republicans were willing to offer legislation that would appropriate the funds for two years, though he said they were looking at ways to pay the funds directly to consumers rather than to insurance companies.

"We want whatever we have to benefit people in 2018 by holding down increases in premiums and by getting them to lower them in 2019 . . . I want to undersell this rather than oversell it, but none of us want millions of people to be hurt, which they will be, if we don't come to a conclusion," Alexander said, the Examiner reported.